Category Archives: Astronomy

Astronomy, Education

Silicon Valley Astronomy Lectures available on line

An announcement from Andrew Fraknoi, chairman of the Astronomy program at Foothill College:

Popular Astronomy Lectures Can Now Be Seen on YouTube

We are happy to announce that the Silicon Valley Astronomy Lectures, featuring noted scientists giving nontechnical illustrated lectures on recent developments in astronomy, are now available on their own YouTube Channel, at:  http://www.youtube.com/SVAstronomyLectures/

The talks include:

  • Frank Drake discussing his modern view of the Drake Equation,
  • Michael Brown explaining how his discovery of Eris led to the demotion of Pluto,
  • Alex Filippenko talking about the latest ideas and observations of black holes,
  • Natalie Batalha sharing the latest planet discoveries from the Kepler mission,
  •   nthony Aguirre discussing how it is possible to have multiple universes, and
  • Chris McKay updating the Cassini discoveries about Saturn’s moon Titan.

The lectures are taped at Foothill College near San Francisco, and co-sponsored by NASA’s Ames Research Center, the SETI Institute, and the Astronomical Society of the Pacific.

Note that the top page of the channel shows the lectures in the order they happened to be uploaded to YouTube.  If you want to see them in chronological order, select the Playlist option.

Both new and older talks in the series will be added to the channel as time goes by.  Many noted astronomers have given talks in this series since its founding in 1999; recent lectures are being recorded so that people around the world can “tune in.”

We appreciate your sharing this information with colleagues, students, and interested astronomy enthusiasts.

Astronomy, Space participation

Exoplanet names and nicknames

5 Comments

It appears the IAU misleads the public by claiming Uwingu was doing something wrong in asking the public to participate in simply nominating names for exoplants. It also misleads in claiming that it’s role in technical nomenclature  given to it by astronomy organizations gives it the all powerful right to decide what anyone may call any object in the universe.

This is as silly as the IAU’s claim that a majority vote among a group of astronomers can instantly convert a planet to a non-planet.

Inevitably some exoplanets will have popular names, i.e nicknames, in addition to the technical names used by astronomy organizations.

Astronomy

A new exoplanet finder mission in 2017

2 Comments

Good to hear that there will be a follow up mission to the Kepler space observatory dedicated to finding exoplanets:

Update: Don’t see a website for the exoplanet project yet but here is a Wikipedia page:  Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite.

A commenter here, points also to the other  experiment that NASA approved – the Neutron star Interior Composition ExploreR (NICER). This will be mounted on the exterior of the ISS in 2017 to study neutron stars with a X-ray timing and spectroscopy instrument.

Astronomy, Science and Technology

Briefing on first results of the ISS Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS-02)

2 Comments

Last month, Sam Ting, head of the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS-02) experiment on the International Space Station hinted that they have found some very interesting results. (See Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer to release first results -BBC – Feb.18.13.) Tomorrow the results will be discussed at the CERN accelerator center in Geneva, Switzerland and on NASA TV: First Results of the AMS-02 experiment to be presented on April 3rd at CERN

[ Update: The presentation at CERN is starting at 11:00 am ET today: LIVE WEBCAST Today @ 11 am ET: AMS Science Seminar by Nobel Laureate Sam Ting – Space.com

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NASA TV Briefing Discusses Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer Results

WASHINGTON — NASA will hold a news conference at 1:30 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, April 3, to discuss the first results of the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) experiment. AMS is a state-of-the-art cosmic ray particle physics detector located on the exterior of the International Space Station.

The briefing will be held in the James E. Webb Auditorium at NASA Headquarters at 300 E St. SW in Washington. It will be broadcast live on NASA Television and streamed on the agency’s website.

The participants include:
— William Gerstenmaier, NASA associate administrator for Human Exploration and Operations
— Samuel Ting (participating by video link), AMS principal investigator, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
— Michael Salamon, U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science program manager for AMS
— Mark Sistilli, NASA AMS program manager

Media representatives may ask questions from participating NASA centers or by telephone. To participate by phone, reporters must contact Rachel Kraft at 202-358-1100 or rachel.h.kraft@nasa.gov by noon, April 3.

AMS was constructed, tested and operated by an international team of 56 institutes from 16 countries and organized under U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science sponsorship. NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston manages the AMS Integration Project Office.

AMS was launched on space shuttle Endeavour on May 16, 2011. Operations on the space station began three days later. AMS continues operations aboard the station today.

For NASA TV streaming video, scheduling and downlink information, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

For more information about AMS and the International Space Station, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/station